English Literature

Please describe (briefly) the student’s role each year reflecting increasing responsibility:

Year 1 Responsibility/Function

Media / Programming / Research Specialist

Media Component: at introductory level, this position requires skills development and acquisition in the areas of writing, interviewing, and editing for the departmental web pages, and may include training in photography for the web.

Programming Component: at introductory level, this position emphasizes shadowing mentors to develop and acquire skills in event planning for a department that annually sponsors multiple high-profile public events on campus, including panel presentations, thesis colloquies, readings and lectures, and three distinct events during April for National Poetry Month. Events feature students, faculty, and off-campus well-respected experts in their fields.

Research Component: at introductory level, this position requires general and academic research skills, working on program-specific projects, as well as with individual faculty members.

In all of these capacities, the employee will work closely and keep regular, necessary communication with mentors.

Year 2 Responsibility/Function

Media / Programming / Research Specialist

Media Component: the second year would continue the work of the first year at an intermediate level, including increased responsibility for developing and creating new web content for departmental pages, and launching, building, and establishing a departmental voice for social media outreach, for example, a Twitter feed.

Programming Component: the second year would continue the work of the first year at an intermediate level, including creating workflow plans that include scheduling, identifying and working with various points of contact on campus (conferences, MarComm, facilities, A-V, catering, etc.).

Research Component: the second year would continue the work of the first year at an intermediate level, increasing the level of research tasks.

In all of these capacities, the employee will work closely and keep regular, necessary communication with mentors. If the employee is interested, this is the year promotion design would enter the job. The employee will have heightened responsibilities in the areas of keeping records, making presentations to the employer, troubleshooting, and initiating updates and innovations where necessary.

Year 3 Responsibility/ Function

Media / Programming/ Research Specialist

Media Component: the third year would continue the work of the first two years at an advanced/professional level, requiring the employee to take on more independence as earned in previous years and/or begin training a new first-year employee. Specifically, the third year employee will be responsible for maintaining and enhancing the departmental web sites and social media.

Programming Component: the third year would continue the work of the first two years at an advanced/professional level, requiring the employee to take on more independence as earned in previous years and/or begin training a new first-year employee. Specifically, the third year employee will be responsible for initiating and completing stages of event planning for various programs in the department, filing paperwork, managing the logistics for events and communicating with guests as necessary. The third year employee will keep and maintain a set of records containing pertinent logistics and information for each event.

Research Component: the third year would continue the work of the first two years at an advanced/professional level, requiring the employee to take on more independence as earned in previous years and/or begin training a new first-year employee. Specifically, the third year employee may be a co-author of a published paper, conference presentation, etc., along with a faculty mentor.

In all of these capacities, the employee will work closely and keep regular, necessary communication with mentors. The employee will have heightened responsibilities in the areas of keeping records, making presentations to the employer, troubleshooting, and initiating updates and innovations where necessary. The employee will additionally lead meetings with the employer and will offer plans and goals for moving forward beyond the employee’s tenure.

Please describe how this role will support the student’s academic progress/experience:

The combined Media/Programming/Research Specialist position in the Dept. of ENG & CW will support any student in any program of study by developing “hard” and “soft” transferable skills, including communication skills (interviewing, writing, editing), interpersonal skills (meeting with mentors, staff and faculty, attending meetings), technical skills (web page design and maintenance, negotiating RWU web pages, working in Adobe Creative Suite), research and analytic skills (analysis of media, framing ideas around purpose and audience, identifying the best academic, professional, and interpersonal sources of information), and organizational skills (learning to balance multiple types of responsibilities with varying degrees of details, keeping track of and prioritizing details, progress, and goals, time management, and working independently).